The Korea Herald

IATA expects airline profits to hit $18b in 2014

Jun 2, 2014

DOHA (AFP) ― The International Air and Transport Association said on Monday that it expects airline companies to record combined net profits of $18 billion this year.Revenues were forecast to reach $746 billion, IATA director general Tony Tayler said in Doha, Qatar, pointing out that net margins stood to average 2.4 percent only. “It sounds impressive. But the brutal economic reality is on revenues of $746 billion we will earn an average net margin of just 2.4 percent,” he said.The amounted to l
Putin pausing as Russia volatility kills trade to invest

Jun 2, 2014

Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions are bumping up against financial markets. As the Russian president plots his next move on Ukraine, investors are giving his inner circle pause for thought. Since Putin annexed Crimea in March in the teeth of international outrage, Russian stocks have become the most volatile since 2009. Swings in the ruble against the euro are now the most extreme on record while expectations for fluctuations in the currency against its emerging-market peers are at the high
GPIF’s $200b bombshell to aid Abe inflation

Jun 2, 2014

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s inflation drive may get a boost as Nomura Holdings Inc. forecasts as much as $200 billion in foreign asset purchases by Japan’s pension funds will weaken the yen. Nomura predicts a selloff of local bonds by the $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund will depreciate the nation’s currency by about 10 yen against the dollar over the next 12-18 months, while Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. estimates an 8 yen slide. GPIF and other public pension fund
Smart lifestyle takes center stage at Asia tech show

Jun 1, 2014

TAIPEI (AFP) ― Asia’s largest tech trade show will be a battleground for smart innovations when it kicks off in Taiwan Tuesday ― from car systems which warn when you are driving badly to a toothbrush-style camera that films the user’s teeth.More than 1,500 exhibitors, including some of the world’s leading technology brands, will set out their stalls at Computex, in the capital Taipei, with 130,000 visitors expected for the five-day event.This year sees the launch of a new SmarTech area featuring
Motorola to close lone U.S. factory

Jun 1, 2014

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) ― Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit has announced it will close its Texas factory by the end of this year, barely a year after it opened as the first smartphone factory in the U.S.Sales of its flagship phone, the Moto X, have been weak and the costs of running the plant are too high to keep operations going, Motorola Mobility spokesman Will Moss said. Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics Ltd. operates the plant.Even though the c
Siemens says nearly 12,000 jobs under threat

Jun 1, 2014

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― German industrial giant Siemens said Friday it was weighing cuts of nearly 12,000 jobs around the world as part of a major restructuring.Chief executive Joe Kaeser told a conference of investors and analysts in New York on Thursday that a previously announced cost-cutting drive would create “noticeable changes all across the entire organization,” a spokesman, Michael Friedrich, confirmed.Some 7,600 positions will be “affected” as part of a company overhaul announced by Kaeser o
Strains building up for China property market

Jun 1, 2014

BEIJING (AFP) ― After years of boom that have seen prices rocket, the prospect of a bust is looming over China’s vast property sector, with authorities hoping to avoid a meltdown that could send shock waves through the world’s second-biggest economy.Housing was doled out by the state when Communist-style collectivism dominated economic management. But in the past two decades that has given way to market-oriented principles as China’s economy has opened.New home prices have soared, more than quad
EU reform weighs on outlook for 82 EU banks

Jun 1, 2014

PARIS (AFP) ― Moody’s rating agency lowered the credit outlook for 82 European banks on Friday because a new EU law makes banks mutually responsible for risks in the event of another crisis.The decision highlights the difficulties of cleaning up and underpinning the banking system which was a focus of public and political anger during the recent crises in the eurozone.The new rules are intended to ring-fence banks which could trigger panic in the system, as happened during the financial crisis,
GM executive says Google car could be ‘competitive threat’

May 29, 2014

Google Inc. could become a “serious competitive threat” to the auto industry if it continues to push its self-driving cars, said Mark Reuss, product-development chief at General Motors Co. GM, which is developing its own autonomous vehicle technology, isn’t in a race with Google to create driverless cars, he told reporters Wednesday in Detroit. Google announced Tuesday that it plans to deploy at least 100 fully autonomous vehicles that it designed in tests starting this year. The two-seat cars w
Apple acquires Beats

May 29, 2014

Company adds hip-hop flair with $3b purchase of headphone maker, music streamer Beats
Fed’s Yellen has scant power to relieve housing slowdown

May 29, 2014

The hesitant housing recovery has surprised and concerned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues at the central bank. It’s not clear how much they can do about it. While the industry is rebounding from a weather-ravaged first quarter, the pickup will probably fall short of previous projections, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of New York and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis. As a result, they trimmed their forecasts for economic growth in the second half
IMF chief Lagarde praises ‘remarkable’ African growth

May 29, 2014

MAPUTO (AFP) ― IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Wednesday hailed the leaps made by African economies in the last decade as “nothing short of remarkable.” On the eve of a major conference in Maputo that will bring together policymakers from across the region, Lagarde said it was time to kick start the “next phase of its economic development.”The sub-Saharan Africa region is expected to grow at more than five percent this year according to the IMF’s latest projections, after similar grow
Japan retail sales fall at record pace after tax increase

May 29, 2014

Japan’s retail sales dropped at the fastest pace in at least 14 years last month after the first consumption-tax increase since 1997 depressed consumer spending. Sales in April declined 13.7 percent from the previous month, the trade ministry reported Thursday, more than the median forecast of an 11.7 percent decline in a Bloomberg News survey of 11 economists. The drop-off follows a consumer splurge in March ahead of the 3 percentage point tax increase from April 1. The data highlight the diffi
Average CEO pay crosses $10 million

May 28, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― They’re the $10 million men and women. Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study. Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package cli
Twitter sees strong growth in emerging markets: report

May 28, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Twitter is seeing strong user growth in the Asia-Pacific region, helping the messaging platform compensate for a slowdown in the U.S. and Europe, a research report said Tuesday.The report by eMarketer forecasts that Twitter’s global user base will increase 24.4 percent in 2014, led by big gains in countries such as Indonesia and India, and to a lesser extent Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.The research firm said its figures on current Twitter usage are lower than company estimate